RUTHLESS
Vigilante justice against traffickers — brutal, blunt, excessive.
Should You Watch It?
Here is the decision. RUTHLESS is a brutal action thriller about something no one should treat lightly — the abuse and trafficking of children — and it treats it as fuel for a vigilante story.
The action excites, and the vengeance satisfies in the moment. That is the appeal, and it is honest to say so. But the pacing and delivery falter, the plot weakens under them, and two stars is a fair measure of what is here.
The content is far heavier than the craft can carry. 141 obscenities, 101 of them "f" words. Bones broken with an audible crack. Guns, knives, strangling, a man hitting a girl in the face. A virtual trafficking auction with children as young as 10 on offer. Sexual references including masturbation, affairs and a mention of rape. Characters drinking at home and often drunk.
Underneath it runs an argument: the law cannot protect children, so a man with fists must. The film is built to make you cheer for that.
So: skip it. What this movie is angry about is worth being angry about. What it does with the anger is not worth your evening.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESHarry coaches high school wrestling. He also buries a daughter, killed by the boyfriend who abused her — a man the court sends away for life, and who gives Harry an evil smile on his way out.
Some time later, a girl named Catia struggles through a wrestling tryout against a boy, and Harry suggests she try track instead. She comes to his office and tells him he was out of line.
Then she turns up at school with a black eye, and the principal would rather he did not file a report.
Harry has already lost one girl to a man like this.
Is It Any Good?
Two stars, and the split is easy to describe.
What works is the action. The fights are physical and unglamorous — punching, kicking, strangling, limbs twisted, bones broken — and the movie delivers the brutal, thrilling scenes it promises. When the vigilante lands a hit, it satisfies. That reaction is the film's entire business.
What does not work is everything holding the action up. The pacing falters. The delivery falters with it. The plot weakens as a result, and the over-the-top register that makes the fights fun is the same register that keeps the story from being credible.
Two stars is the honest number here: a movie that stages a beating better than it builds a scene.
The Worldview
RUTHLESS is a humanist movie with moral elements, and its argument is simple — the system does not work, so a man must.
Harry's distrust of the law is earned. He lost a daughter. He watches a school administrator discourage him from reporting a girl who came to school with a black eye. As the film sees it, the systems in place are ineffective and short-sighted against a vast trafficking operation, and law enforcement's pleas that he stay out of it amount to an invitation to let another girl disappear.
So he becomes his own justice. The movie is clear-eyed enough to admit that what he does to abusers and pedophiles is immoral and meant to shock — and then builds every scene to make the audience cheer him on. It softens him afterward, too: he offers to make things right with the men whose arms he breaks, medical bills included.
The girl's mother is the film's quietest horror. She stays with the man hurting her daughter because she believes a woman with no education has no other way to survive, and even with her daughter in danger she insists the girl is simply difficult.
There is real good in Harry's motive — he fights for someone who cannot fight for herself. Scripture has no quarrel with that instinct. Its quarrel is with who holds the sword: God gives that to governing authorities and reserves vengeance for Himself, while giving His people something harder — "Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute" (Psalm 82:3).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
A humanist worldview with moral elements. The main character is a vigilante hero resulting from strong distrust in law enforcement in the face of evil in the form of male driven abuse and human trafficking. The main character struggles with grief and injustice and takes his frustrations of the ineffectiveness of the law system into his own brand of justice. He ignores the pleas of law enforcement to stay out but inserts himself into a criminal ring insisting he can be effective while they cannot. The way law enforcement works, at least according to this movie, the systems in place are ineffective and short-cited to the illegal inner workings of a vast human trafficking organization. While the main character’s violence toward abusers and pedophiles are immoral and intended to be shocking, the reason behind it is honorable, making the audience cheer him on. He fights for those who cannot fight for themselves, putting himself in danger. After physically punishing/inflicting injury, he often offers to make it right and avoid legal entanglements, such as offering to pay for medical fees. The actions or inactions of the young girl’s mother are deplorable, seemingly stemming from a lack of any other option but to stay with the abusive boyfriend. But even when her daughter is clearly in serious danger and abduced, she insists her daughter is just difficult
Foul Language
Strong foul language with four instances of profanities including OMG, 141 obscenities including 101 “F” words and 19 “sh” words; Many sexual references such as masturbation and affairs
Violence
Intense physical fighting including punching, kicking, strangling, slamming against wall, twisting of limbs and breaking of bones. Blood. Threats with guns and knives, gunshots resulting in death. Person shown on life support. A man hits a girl in the face, giving her a black eye. Man breaks multiple arms, audible crack. Child abuse and human trafficking action shown. People shown handcuffed in a cage
Sex
Sexual references include masturbation and affairs. A virtual sex trafficking auction shown includes children as young as 10. Mention of rape. A man tries to kiss and touch a woman after she says no
Nudity
No nudity. Girls shown in scant clothing. Background art features nude male and females, however details aren’t shown
Alcohol Use
Characters drink alcohol at home, often drunk
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
Cigarette smoking and mention of a woman being drugged. Over the counter drugs, such as Tylenol are taken;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Strong miscellaneous immorality. Bad role models. Severely dysfunctional family dynamics with an abusive boyfriend and a dismissive mother that puts a young girl in serious danger. Kidnapping. The school administration discourages the coach from filing a report of abuse. Gambling, where the auction of minors is a bidding war.
Talk About It
Four questions for the couch, the commute, or the couple bingeing it together.
Harry decides the law cannot protect girls like Catia, so he will. Where does Scripture put the sword, and what does it ask of the rest of us when the system fails someone?
Romans 13:1–4 · Proverbs 24:11–12The movie invites you to cheer for violence it openly calls immoral. What happens in a person who learns to enjoy evil done for a good reason?
Romans 12:21 · 1 Peter 3:9A principal discourages a report. A mother calls her bruised daughter "difficult." Who in your world is quietly counting on an adult to say something?
Proverbs 31:8–9 · Isaiah 1:17Harry works his grief out first in a boxing ring and then in a war. What does God offer a person carrying a loss that size?
Psalm 34:18 · 2 Corinthians 1:3–4The Final Word
RUTHLESS is angry about the right things. Children are abused, girls are sold, and adults who should step in look away — the film sees all of that clearly. Then it answers with 101 "f" words, broken bones and a hero doing what the movie itself admits is immoral. Two stars, and a subject that deserved better hands. Our answer stands: skip it. Start with our family-friendly picks instead.
